Paved roadways that are built to facilitate vehicular travel are typically resurfaced from time to time as wear and tear caused by several factors, such as fatigue and freeze-thaw cycles, degrades the surface of the roadway. Many paved roadways consist of an asphalt surface course that is supported by a base course comprising one or more layers of aggregate material deposited on a subgrade of native earth material. After the base course is prepared during a road building operation or after the old surface course is removed during a resurfacing operation, fresh asphalt for the new surface course is laid down using a paving machine and compacted to form a strong, smooth road surface. The fresh asphalt is produced at a plant and delivered to the worksite in haul trucks while the asphalt is still at a high enough temperature to be effectively laid down and compacted. If too much time passes before the asphalt is laid down and compacted, the asphalt can cool to temperatures at which it becomes unworkable by the paving and compacting machines and must be discarded or replaced, which can reduce productivity and be costly.
In many cases, paving operations that move at a steady, consistent pace can be successfully managed to achieve productivity goals while minimizing waste in terms of time, manpower, and material. However, situations often arise that can result in the delay of certain aspects of the paving operation and require operators and supervisors to respond quickly and effectively in order to prevent a chain of delays that can lead to significant waste. To avoid delays, supervisors may wish to coordinate asphalt production rates, paving rates, compacting rates, and material delivery logistics with each other and with respect to asphalt temperature. But coordinating these aspects can be challenging where such coordination relies on the abilities of and communication among multiple personnel and/or control systems responsible for each process.
A system for controlling asphalt production and a paving process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 9,011,038 that issued to Buschmann et al. on Apr. 21, 2015 (“the '038 patent”). In particular, the '038 patent discloses a system for controlling the quantity and temperature of asphalt produced at a plant and regulating a rate of using the asphalt in a paving process at a jobsite. The system includes a mixing plant where asphalt is produced at a certain temperature and a number of trucks for delivering the asphalt to a paving machine. The system also includes a controller that determines a demand forecast for paving material at the pacing machine based on a laying speed, the asphalt temperature at the paving machine, and a stored work schedule containing pavement plans, including geometry, thickness, and degree of compaction. Based on the demand forecast, the controller sends request signals to the plant, and the plant adjusts the temperature of the asphalt it produces so the asphalt arrives at the jobsite at a set temperature. The production temperature of the asphalt may be adjusted at the plant based on a deviation of the asphalt temperature at the paving machine from the set temperature. The temperature and amount of prepared material is communicated to the paving machine, and the paving rate of the paving machine is adjusted based on this information.
While the system of the '038 patent may allow for the delivery temperature of the asphalt and the paving rate to be controlled, it may not be optimum. In particular, the information provided to the operator of the paving machine by the system of the '038 patent may not be easily used by operators of all skill levels to determine how to particularly adjust operating parameters of the paving machine to achieve targeted performance levels. Further, the system of the '038 patent may not consider other important processes of the resurfacing operation or provide operators associated with those processes with information for performing their tasks based on asphalt temperature and in coordination with other machines or operations.
The control system of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above and/or other problems in the art.